Syria slams EU over presidential elections' remarks

Damascus, June 7 (IANS) Syria's foreign ministry Saturday slammed as "flagrant violation of the international law" the European Union's statement terming its presidential elections "illegitimate".

"The Syrian government is astonished by the EU's statement on the Syrian presidential elections, considering it a flagrant violation to the international law," Xinhua cited the ministry as saying in a statement.

The European Union said in a recent statement that the election is "illegitimate and undermine the political efforts to find a solution to this horrific conflict", which has internally displaced 6.5 million people, according to the latest UN figures.

The ministry said the EU's position contradicts the "simplest basics of democracy" and is against the people's rights to determine their future and leadership.

The ministry noted that the huge turnout by the Syrians inside and outside Syria at the polling stations is the biggest evidence of the credibility of the vote.

Syria's incumbent President Bashar al-Assad won a third seven-year term by garnering an overwhelming 88.7 percent of the vote in the presidential elections Tuesday, the parliament announced Wednesday.

The results was condemned by the country's opposition and their Western backers, who dismissed the election as a "sham".

Claiming that the Syrian people voted "out of fear", a group of opposition fighters denounced the vote as "elections of blood", without legitimacy.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called the results "meaningless", adding that "the so-called elections are non-elections" and "a great big zero".